Fish On The Water
by Kamitra
Summary: Just a oneshot on Hokuto's perspective. Philisophical and very Hokuto-ish. ^^;


I know I'm not supposed to be writing, but I kind of felt I had to. (Shyeah right.) Boy, am I going to hate myself in the morning, since I have to wake up in about 9 hours and I'm starting this /now/.   
  
Disclaimer - Ack. That's all I have to say.  
  
Fish On The Water  
  
(I wanted something different for a title even if it didn't make sense. *sweatdrop*)  
  
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Hokuto, 10 years old, looked at the question before her. While her brother was out on a job, she was stuck keeping finding ways to keep herself occupied. So here she was doing a crossword puzzle while simultaneously watching the birds flitter from branch to branch just outside her window. The tree was a rather scrawny one, bearing a spattering of leaves that showed that it had much growing to do still.  
  
Hokuto tapped her pencil to her lips in a gesture that announced to the uncaring world Thinking - Leave Me In Peace. "What's a five-letter word for focus.?" (#1)  
  
"Attention, Sumeragi."  
  
Hokuto didn't bat an eyelash at her concentration being disturbed. "That's nine letters, Sensei," she said equably. Her language teacher gave her a patient look, as if this was a common exchange between them. And it probably was, as Hokuto, despite being brilliant and conscientious, held very little interest in schoolwork.  
  
"If you could do so, tell the class what the meaning of the fable we just read was?"  
  
Hokuto took a deep breath. "In the beginning, the fox thought the grapes would be something good. But after trying to get something he couldn't, the fox decided that it was something he didn't want. At home, when we try to get something adults tells us we don't want, they probably make it difficult for us to get so we leave it alone."  
  
.Schoolwork that she already understood, at least. Her teachers constantly asked the fourth grader's (#2) grandmother to consider transferring her to a more prestigious school, but Hokuto absolutely refused to move without her younger twin, and naturally, with Subaru's attendance rating, there was simply no way he would be accepted into a better school. In any case, this school was close to home, and everyone knew that Subaru was a homebody at heart.  
  
The teacher nodded, satisfied. "All parents want to protect their children, and that's why they make rules in the house. It may look like something fun to do, but actually isn't. Even worse, it's probably dangerous. I want all of you to talk to your partners and make a list of things you would make difficult for the kindergarteners to do so they don't get hurt."  
  
The children immediately started to stand up and push desks around the room or walk around and draw pictures on the chalkboard. The room was a rather small one, as they were in a more rural area of Kyoto. The chalkboards looked as if they had suffered patty-cake abuse (the children ran through one every five years and one came this year), but other than that, the room basically had a worn look to it. Change the children and teacher's wardrobe a bit, and it could look like something from older times.  
  
From the back of the classroom, Hokuto Sumeragi started daydreaming again. Her partner wasn't here today, so she didn't have to do anything. He usually wasn't, and like always, it wasn't his fault. If anyone bothered to ask Subaru later, another thing that looked like fun to everyone else but really wasn't was skipping school. If you didn't go to school, you worked. Adults worked all the time.  
  
Her little sibling may have been singled out in almost everything in the Sumeragi family, but Hokuto was singled out in everything in the rest of the world. She was constantly called out on during class for answers, whispered about by the girls in the corner of her eye, and forced to explain her brother's absences, especially on the first day of class. (Not that any of this bothered her one bit.) She was also the first one accused of stealing cookies from the kitchen at home, but that wasn't important.  
  
Compared to her sweet and gentle twin brother, this was nothing. As the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi family, Subaru was forced to endure lengthy periods of intense training, and after training, frequent commissions with their grandmother. Hokuto's younger twin could do all the commissions himself, but not too many clients would look convincingly at a ten-year-old without some sort of guardian to watch them exorcise ghosts and the like. So that meant he had to deal with skeptical clients as well as a constant backlog of homework and assignments, while she drew pictures on her crossword puzzle.  
  
Hokuto looked out the window again. A bit of sunlight was starting to peek through the branches and leaves of the tree. She watched as a small bird about 4 centimeters long flew down out of her sight. Through the space between the leaves, she saw a figure reach up and catch a bird with a gloved finger, but instead the bird settled on the hat. Hokuto nodded approvingly. Hats always suited her little brother more than the gloves did.  
  
Hokuto quickly scribbled a five-letter word in her book before she ran out of the room to greet her brother. "Five-letter word for focus," she murmured to herself.  
  
Heart.  
  
It wasn't the correct answer, but in another life, it could have been.  
  
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Yes, this was for the fic challenge. ^^; I love Hokuto, and if you listen to all that stuff she spouted out in TB, it's obvious she either came up with it herself, or did a hell of a lot of reading - both things being something one wouldn't think from her outgoing nature. Ah, they're all complex people.  
  
#1) Yeah, it's in English. I can't do that sort of thing in Japanese (that would make the fic waaay more interesting, but no).  
  
#2) I know they start later than that, but in the school system I was in, 10 years would have stuck a kid in 4th grade. In any case, I wanted her old enough to spout off pragmatic things without getting stares, but young enough to fit the fic challenge. 


End file.
